Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, director Johannes Roberts’ cinematic adaptation of the renowned franchise, has just hit a major milestone. As confirmed yesterday during Capcom’s showcase containing updates on all things concerning the survival horror series, the upcoming live-action reboot has now concluded filming in Toronto, Canada and entered the post-production phase.
As for what the process will involve in this case, the creative team says that the primary focus will be on bringing to life the various machinations of The Umbrella Corporation which, it would seem, will be wholly rendered using CGI. Whether this extends to rank-and-file undead (previous films went the route of hiring extras and transforming them into zombies with liberal amounts of makeup) remains to be seen, though we can think of at least a few creatures that’ll require some technical wizardry in order to faithfully represent their video game counterparts.
Characters such as Lisa Trevor and William Birkin, for example, while originally human, will almost certainly be brought to life via a combination of both, especially as the latter undergoes several transformations during the course of his rampage throughout Raccoon City in Resident Evil 2. Will all of these forms be represented in the movie? Who knows, but considering Roberts’ wish to make his version more closely follow the source material, we’d be surprised if only the former Umbrella scientist’s initial G-Virus mutation ended up shown on screen.
In terms of generic monsters such as Hunters, Cerberus and Lickers, all of them definitely go beyond the realm of practical effects, and we can’t wait to see the designs of each when Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City arrives later this year. Stay tuned for more details.